


Complicated

by lesbianmountaingal (AllTreesAreSapphic)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Clizzy - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Nightmares, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Season/Series 01, Sharing a Bed, brief mention of Jace, super fast burn, unrequited love suddenly gets requited like BAM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 09:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8618134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTreesAreSapphic/pseuds/lesbianmountaingal
Summary: Clary's been having nightmares after Jace goes missing, and Isabelle is the only person she feels can help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is one of the first fics I've ever put online -- I hope you like it! There needs to be a lot more Clizzy out there so I thought I'd help with that

‘Isabelle?’ Night time. A knock at the door. Izzy rolled over in bed, the covers sliding off her back like sand off a dune. She peered through the silvery-grey moonlight filtering in through the window to the doorway of her bedroom — Clary was hovering there, silhouetted by the warm hallway lamps. 

‘Clary? What is it? Are you okay?’

Her face was veiled with shadows, but her fidgeting hands were enough to show how tense she was. ‘It’s… it’s nothing. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have woken you up. I’ll go,’

‘No! I mean… if there’s something bothering you, of course you can talk to me,’ Izzy sat up fully now, her liquorice hair peeled away from the pillow where she’d been lying. Clary shifted back from the doorway just slightly and light spilled over her from the hall. Isabelle cracked a smile, ’I don’t exactly require beauty sleep, if you’re worried.’ 

‘I — I had a nightmare.’ Iz’s smile fell.

‘Clary, come in. It’s alright.’ Clary stood still in the doorway for another second or two, before she took a tentative few steps over the threshold. When the moonlight washed the shadows from her face, Isabelle could see it was marked with tear stains. Clary perched gingerly on the bed next to her, hesitant where she was usually so eager. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

‘I don’t remember that much of it now, but… Valentine was there. He had Jace, and he was hurting him,’ she sniffed in a ragged breath, ‘and I wanted to make him stop but I couldn’t move, and I could hear my mom, so she must have been there too, but I couldn’t see her…’

'It wasn’t real, Clary,’ Izzy slid one arm around her, and Clary bent into the hug, resting her head on Izzy’s shoulder. ‘Your mother is fine, she’s with Luke, and Jace — 

Jace can handle himself.’ Her voice caught towards the end of that sentence, but they couldn’t worry about Jace just now when there was nothing they could do. Damp tears were seeping into the smooth fabric of her top, but she didn’t mind. She felt Clary shiver against her, then straighten up.

‘Iz, do you mind if I stay for a while?’

Tricky question. One that Isabelle wasn’t quite sure how to answer. Looking at Clary now, tiny and terrified, her baggy pyjamas hanging off her skinny frame and her fiery hair a tangle of bed-headed curls, there wasn’t an alternate universe in which she could’ve said no. But letting Clary sleep in Izzy’s bed would mean a night of forcing down her emotions and pretending that her feelings for her friend didn’t go slightly beyond platonic… ‘Of course you can stay.’

Clary’s face softened, the sadness and the fear ebbing away slightly. Her legs slid out along the length of the bed as she lay down next to Izzy, who allowed herself a second to grit her teeth against a wave of heartbreak before shuffling under the covers as well.

 

Clary was sure Isabelle was asleep. Their faces were centimetres apart — Clary could feel periodic puffs of warm breath against her lips, and she could see Izzy’s eyes darting under her closed lids. Their double body heat made the bed pleasantly hot, and Clary’s whole body could sense the warmth radiating off of the other girl. Seeing her there, all curled up and peaceful, she looked so simple — all it would take was a couple of strokes to sketch out her sleeping features. But what she made Clary feel was far from simple. Everyone knew Izzy was beautiful, but thinking your friend was beautiful didn’t mean getting butterflies every time you saw her smile, or your fingers tingling for hours after she held your hand. No, Isabelle was something else, she meant more than Clary could understand. The tiny space between them felt like metres — Clary knew she could cross it if she took a leap of faith, but she was too scared to move. 

She sighed, and was about to turn over when Isabelle’s eyes fluttered open and locked sleepily with Clary’s.

‘You still awake?’

‘Yeah,’ Clary smirked despite herself.

‘Nightmares still?’ concern flashed across her face. ‘Or… something else?’

‘I’d say something else.’ Clary was repeatedly failing not to stare at Izzy’s bare pink lips as they moved. ‘Something more… complicated.’ Something shone in her deep brown eyes just then — it looked to Clary like hope.

‘Why complicated?’ Izzy's eyes were darting now, meeting Clary’s with a kind of tentative understanding. ‘Forensic pathology is complicated, Clary. You sleeping in my bed — doesn’t have to be complicated. If… you know what I mean.’ 

She smiled, and Clary broke. She went to close the distance between them but Izzy was already there — their lips crashed together softly, broke apart too quickly. Their eyes met again, equal parts surprise and happiness. Before she could kiss her again Clary slid one arm around Isabelle’s waist and snuggled in close to her chest, overcome with the tiredness she’d been fighting back for so long. 

‘Iz?’

‘Mhm?’

‘I think I can sleep now.’

‘Finally.’ Clary could hear the smile in her voice as she started to drift off into dreaming. Whatever happened next, there was at least one thing in their crazy, terrifying lives that was a little less complicated.


End file.
